


Bargaining Period

by sister_wolf



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-08-28
Updated: 2005-08-28
Packaged: 2017-10-12 05:49:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/121485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sister_wolf/pseuds/sister_wolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lex and Shiva negotiate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bargaining Period

**Author's Note:**

> The Random DC Porn Generator gave me Lady Shiva and/or Lex Luthor... have phone sex. This is what my brain gave me in return. Occurs after the "Sensei & Student" storyline in Birds of Prey.

"That's a very... intriguing proposition, Mr. Luthor. Before we proceed, however, I do have a few questions for you." Shiva's voice is throaty, rich, but not warm. There's a hint of sound in the background of the phone call; bird song, the rush of water-- she might be in a garden. His agents in Okinawa spotted her arriving a few days ago, and it's possible that she's still there. What her business was in the city, and how it related to her reportedly working with both Cheshire and Black Canary, of all people, in Hong Kong last week, he does not know. Yet.

"Naturally, Lady Shiva. Please, go on." Lex idly ponders why it is that all the truly beautiful women are sociopathic killers. He's self-aware enough, though, to admit that it's entirely possible that might be part of the attraction.

"First, just to satisfy my curiosity-- how _did_ you get this phone number?" She sounds lazily amused.

Sipping his scotch on the rocks, Lex thinks about tigers napping in the sunlight, and other beautiful, deadly things. "You and I both know that it's possible to find out anything, if you know the right questions to ask. Everyone has a price."

"True. The project you mentioned... how much are you willing to offer me to take care of that little problem for you?"

"One point three million. Half up front, half after completion." He'd have started the bidding lower, with any other assassin, but this is Lady Shiva. It's hard to say who the best assassin in the world is-- David Cain, Deathstroke, Lady Shiva-- but there is one important difference between Shiva and her competitors. Lady Shiva is an artist. And, like all artists, she is temperamental. He has no desire to insult her skills; the last would-be employer who did so ended up rather creatively (and untraceably) dead.

"That's a rather princely sum, even for taking out a member of the caped community. And this one, I believe, doesn't even possess any metahuman traits. What has a silly man who dresses up like Robin Hood and arrests bank robbers done to incur _your_ displeasure?" Still amused, but slightly disdainful as well.

"Let's just say that he's used his status as a member of the... 'caped community'... to obstruct my expansion into contested territory." All this fuss simply because his proposed manufacturing complex threatens the habitat of some damned endangered ground squirrel. A furry pest that half the people who signed Green Arrow's petition would probably have called the exterminator for, had the rodent in question started burrowing holes in their neatly trimmed suburban lawns. But now that a Justice Leaguer has taken up the cause of the thirteen-ringed black-footed ground squirrel, it's all over the evening news, and his manufacturing complex has been delayed indefinitely in planning committee hell.

Lex has put up with a lot from the Justice League over the years-- destroying his giant robots, foiling his elaborate plans to take over the world, dismantling his stolen nuclear weapons-- but interfering with his legitimate corporate operations is simply going too far.

"Interesting. Unfortunately, Mr. Luthor, I have a conflict of interest." Her soft voice is cold now, all business.

"A conflict of interest?" That's unexpected, to say the least. As far as he was aware, Lady Shiva has never even met Green Arrow.

"Yes. The untimely death of the archer would interfere with certain long-range plans of mine. This, as you might imagine, would be quite vexing to me, and so I must strongly advise you against this course of action."

What is Lady Shiva's connection to Green Arrow? Lex's mind runs through the possibilities, quickly zeroing in on one-- Lady Shiva was in Hong Kong last week, working with Black Canary, who reportedly dated Green Arrow for years. It's a tenuous connection at best, but something that bears investigation. "Surely we can find a price which would recompense you for the interference with your long-range plans. I am prepared to offer you a quarter of a million dollars more--"

"Perhaps I need to make this clearer," she interrupts. "The archer, and the archer's family, is under my protection. I will retaliate in kind if any of them die by your hand, either directly or indirectly. Am I understood?"

"Yes. I understand," Lex says, his voice carefully controlled.

"A pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Luthor, as always. Good day." The line goes dead. He puts down the phone carefully, and picks up his glass. Drains it.

The glass shatters against the opposite wall. Lex stares at it for a few moments, brooding, and then takes a drink from the bottle. All this over a goddamned ground squirrel.

Lex rubs his temples wearily. Perhaps now would be a good time to start work again on improving his design for a metahuman power disruptor.

Yes. He can feel his mood improving already.


End file.
